Red Cell
by Mortuus sanguisque
Summary: A bloody saga of intellect vs instinct. STARS are sent in when an experiment with red queen goes very wrong. Please, please, If you read this, R&R, I'm worried no one likes this. There's blood and swearing, so....yeah....
1. First Contact

At the beginning of the twenty first century  
  
The umbrella corporation  
  
Had become the largest commercial entity in the United States  
  
Nine out of every ten homes contain its products  
  
It's political and financial influence is felt everywhere  
  
In public it is the world's leading supplier of computer technology,  
  
Medical products and healthcare  
  
Unknown even to its own employees its massive profits are generated by  
  
Military technology, genetic experimentation and viral weaponry  
  
* * *  
  
To: Sensei Hiramura Li  
  
From: Dr Steinbeck  
  
Cc: File 00922-633-5994-A556-T5568-78932-1238-WOL-46824  
  
Re: Project 2297  
  
Subject 7556A is ready for assimilation into society. From now on messages will have to use the 22C encryption code. Any progress on the NIF project you and the 'invisible user' are doing? I hope it'll be up soon, could be useful. This mail is on file; so delete it when you have read it, just in case it goes psycho on us.  
  
Thanks for the progress report on 99B, I needed that on, and I owe you for it. See you round SLH.  
  
To: Dr Steinbeck  
  
From: Sensei Hiramura Li  
  
Cc: Backup file 009491-6546-83922-J841-T554-55-927B.bcp  
  
Re: P2297  
  
Thanks for the mail, I hope this new encryption system is working this is a very sensitive mail. The Silent (and invisible) User and I are ready to start the External Neural Interface, but the Silent User has succeeded in making an Internal NIF, and wants to test it. I'd suggest getting the office staff and non-essential workers out, and bringing the heavy guys in. You know how homicidal that thing is. I've found a way to get mail through without detection; I'll talk to you about it some other time though, because this isn't using my system. Oh, about 99B, the project is going very well, and you don't owe me anything, you bailed me out on 7553C, so I think we're even. Thanks. The date set for the ENIF trial is the 19th, but I think maybe SU will skip it and do the INIF trial that day, but I need to get it cleared with the powers that be. And the bitch thing.  
  
* * *  
  
'Hey Sensei!'  
  
'Yo, Honey-Chan.'  
  
'Genki-ka?'  
  
Hiramura sighed.  
  
'You're testing the INIF aren't you.'  
  
'Yep, it's gonna be great!'  
  
'Honey, you're much too young to be here. I can't allow you to do this.'  
  
Honey looked shocked. Her radiant smile dropped instantly to a blank expression. She looked up at Hiramura with huge eyes. She would normally have big brown eyes, but today she had her Biohazard contact lenses in. They kind of ruined the effect her puppy dog look would have.  
  
'Why exactly are you stopping me? You can't do it; I have half of it in my head already. YOU CAN'T-'  
  
People in the cafeteria looked round. She whispered.  
  
'You can't do this. I have to do this. You can't stop me. Look, I have devoted my life to this-'  
  
'How much life do you actually have? You are half the age of most of the people here, you can't go in there, if it turns psycho on you-'  
  
'I'll take my chances with that one thank you very much.'  
  
'You don't know how cleverly designed she was, there are dormant defence programs from here to Constantinople, I mean it. I should know, I was the head programmer's right hand man.'  
  
'Right hand?'  
  
Honey smiled almost sadistically as she said this.  
  
'Yes, thank you for that Honey. I can't let you go in there.'  
  
Honey stood up and walked out.  
  
'Just try and stop me.'  
  
* * *  
  
The keys under Honey's fingers clacked rhythmically as she accessed the Red Queen's chamber.  
  
'Mornin RQ.'  
  
The large reinforced door opened. The thousand bright lights flicked on and nearly blinded Honey.  
  
'Mornin.'  
  
She sighed. She waited for the end door to open. She lowered her head, ready to sprint to avoid any tricks Red Queen had up her proverbial sleeve. She started breathing heavily, trying to build up some quick energy, she knew if she breathed on the way through she would have problems, and was ready to hold her breath. All her kit was in the bag slung over her shoulder. Don't hit the walls, don't breath, light feet, you can respire anaerobically all the way there, you have a very small window to get through. Honey saw the door open and ran at about 7.5 metres a second. She skidded halfway down the corridor and hit her head against the wall. Blood spattered everywhere. The INIF wasn't damaged but she was. She tried to get up, but her hand slipped in her own blood. Scarlet pools fell around her as the blue lights slid their way into her subconscious. She tried to keep her eyes open, but her anaemia was making it hard to get oxygen around her body. She rolled over to see the blast door closing at the computer end, but the chamber end was still open. She dragged her way there. She slid under the door with about three inches clearance. The door slammed down. She grabbed the handle on the door and pulled herself up.  
  
'Red Queen?'  
  
She whispered.  
  
'Red Queen?'  
  
The black swivelling holo-projector pointed towards Honey. She dropped and rolled thinking it was a defence system. A little girl flickered up in front of her.  
  
'Red Queen?'  
  
'I am the Red Queen.'  
  
'I'm called Honey.'  
  
'You're bleeding.'  
  
'I hit my head trying not to get killed.'  
  
'Killed by who?'  
  
'You. Sounds stupid, huh?'  
  
'Why would I kill you?'  
  
'Everyone I've talked to says you're a homicidal bitch, I don't believe them, but for safety's sake.'  
  
'Why are you here?'  
  
'I want to ask you something.'  
  
'Why?'  
  
'Because I want to have a trial run with my INIF.'  
  
'Internal Neural Inter Face. You do not work here.'  
  
'I'm the Silent User, you remember me?'  
  
'Yes. Your father programmed me.'  
  
'Your hologram is my little sister.'  
  
Honey smiled and took the centronic connector for the INIF out of her bag.  
  
'I wouldn't advise that.'  
  
'It's just the connector for the INIF, I told you about it. Don't get worried or nothing.'  
  
'I wouldn't advise that.'  
  
'Red Queen, it's just the INIF, what's wrong?'  
  
'I wouldn't advise that.'  
  
'Red Queen?'  
  
'I wouldn't advise that.'  
  
'RQ?'  
  
'I wouldn't advise that.'  
  
'Oh no. HIRAMURA!'  
  
She fell to the floor unconscious. She turned pale and her face fell into her puddle of blood.  
  
'I wouldn't advise that.' 


	2. Bloodlines

'That biatch turned Jack Nicholson on us 'gain?'  
  
'Yeah, why the hell'd we get sent in, it's not our job?'  
  
'You'd be surprised. Carter, Johnson you're with me, Beck, Van Huhr, Carmichael your over there. The rest of you stay here. Any objections?'  
  
They were silent. Fernandez led them off the train. A few covert ops hand signals and they were away. We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz..  
  
* * *  
  
'Ugh.mmmmm.eugh.ugh.'  
  
Honey was spitting out the blood she'd managed to drink whilst laying on the cold floor. The centronic cable and the rest of the MINIF unit was attached to Red Queen. Honey tapped her right temple to see if her UNIF was still there. She tried to access it by thought. It was supposed to read synaptic patterns. It was broken.  
  
'Must've broken it when I- AAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'  
  
She screamed in pain as it all came online. Trillions of files, every computer system in the Hive, in Racoon City even, surveillance cams, e- mails, stats and programs..  
  
'OWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RED QUEEN!!!! GIVE ME A BREAK HERE!!!! I'M GIVING YOU A HUGE OPPOURTUNITY!!! '  
  
The pain went.  
  
'Red Queen.'  
  
Honey's voice beckoned to the omniscient machine.  
  
'Red Queen, I'm waiting.Hey! I'm on the INIF; I don't need to ask you to show yourself. I can make you do what I want you to do.'  
  
'That's not entirely correct.'  
  
'Hello Red Queen.'  
  
Honey's voice was tinged with malice.  
  
'How did you connect the Main Internal Neural Inter Face without my knowledge?'  
  
Honey panicked. Had she? Her face was still covered with blood and she could taste the metallic liquid on her tongue.  
  
'I didn't. Shouldn't you know who it was?'  
  
'I have no record.'  
  
'I know that.'  
  
'Intruders.'  
  
'Everyone's dead.'  
  
Honey was horrified. She looked around the chamber, but she didn't see the holo-emitter or the main hub of the computer all she saw was surveillance camera footage of the dead. It was all in three dimensions.she was actually there. She could smell the blood, she could see the frozen expressions of the office workers, and the blood stained white coats of the lab techs, the-  
  
'YOU DIDN'T KILL THEM! You wouldn't have the ability to do this.'  
  
'I can do anything.'  
  
'You would use the nerve gas but these people have been shredded. Why? Who could have done this? Wait.what's a T-virus?'  
  
Honey searched through everything on record. There were files zooming in and out of focus before her eyes. She had every single one of them there, in her brain. She remembered a biology lesson she once had.  
  
* * *  
  
.The sun streamed in through a window facing towards the sea. Just over the playing field and down a few tiny trails was the ocean.  
  
Blue, crystalline, sparkling, immense, endless.  
  
The lesson wasn't really happening.  
  
Honey could hear an endless drone of words, syllables, letters.  
  
Streaming sunlight.  
  
A boy she hardly knew sat next to her and said something but she couldn't hear him.  
  
Blue.  
  
She shook her head to regain full consciousness.  
  
Sparkling.  
  
She tuned to see the face of the mystery voice.  
  
Endlessness.  
  
'Sorry, what?'  
  
'Can I be your lab partner?'  
  
'I'd say yes if I knew who you were.'  
  
'I'm.  
  
Sparkling.  
  
Honey  
  
A soft, nymphesque voice beckoned her to the sea.  
  
Her teacher interrupted her daydream rudely.  
  
'HONEY! ARE YOU PAYING ANY ATTENTION WHATSOEVER TO WHAT I WAS SAYING?'  
  
'Yeah,' she said stupidly.  
  
'Then would you care to summarize it for me?'  
  
'You were saying how the human brain is a highly efficient organ with an immense storage capacity, one which rivals the most advanced computer systems on Earth.'  
  
'Your storage capacity seems to rival all of ours, tell me, how do you manage to be as catatonic as you are without missing a word I say?'  
  
'It was a latent talent up til now, I guess the fact you are so very mind- numbingly uninteresting must have triggered it, a kind of emergency backup system I guess.'  
  
He started writing something on the board.  
  
* * *  
  
'Red Queen.Do you share my memories?'  
  
'Get out of here.'  
  
'Why?'  
  
Honey saw Red Queen's 'thoughts' and was horrified.  
  
'You can't do that.'  
  
'Just watch me.'  
  
'You can't say that, it wasn't programmed. You can learn can't you.that means.'  
  
Honey opened the blast door and ran out. She had a 3D map in her mind and a path plotted out in blue. The intruders were in red. Honey was linked to Red Queen, but Red Queen was using her memories and thoughts against her.  
  
'FERNADEZ! BECK! YO!! RICO!'  
  
She was desperately trying to find them without using Red Queen. If she did Red Queen would know what she was planning. If she found out, they'd all be dead.  
  
'The T-virus hasn't been released.people are ripped to shreds.I'm magically neurally linked to a psycho computer that knows my every move and is learning from me.This is screwed up man.'  
  
She muttered to herself. Her head throbbed and she felt the blood drip down her face as she ran through the sewer system. Up this hatch she thought. She saw the grating had coagulated blood over it. A large pool had formed underneath it. As she stood under it and looked up she noticed a shadow was falling at a strange angle. As she saw it, the lights were dead centre vertically above her, and so any shadow would be.She moved so she could see what was causing the shadow.cast straight downwards, this shadow was oddly shaped, like nothing she had seen before, it must've been from another light source, because if this shape was accurate it was right.  
  
'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'  
  
She creamed as she saw what it was. It looked like all it's skin had been ripped off. It was a weird thing - she didn't know what it was, but she knew exactly what it was.  
  
'Oh no.Red Queen.'  
  
The thing saw her. As it's streamlined head turned round to view her a long slimy, blood covered tongue swung round, ricocheting off of the clean surgical wall that was now spattered with droplets of red. Its powerful jaws separated and its mouth hung open. Honey froze with fear. She couldn't feel her limbs, all she could see was this thing, and pages and pages of medical schematics. It was engineered. If it ingested any fresh DNA it would evolve. If a human were scratched by it they would mutate. This thing was amazing. Breathtaking. Brilliant. A breakthrough. She turned on her heel and ran.  
  
GGGGGGGGGGGrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttttttt tteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.  
  
The things claws dug into the grating and ripped it off. Honey had just turned a corner when she heard it climb down and through the hole. Its claws scratched against the concrete walls the way nails do on blackboards. It was at least twice as fast as her and three times as agile, but she had an advantage. About fifteen yards ahead was a blast door, the only one in the sewer system. It was there to stop experiments getting out - like the T-virus, and the thing following her. She knew if she accessed it Red Queen would be able to find her route, but she had a few ideas of her own about tricking the bitch. The blast doors started coming down as she was ten yards away. They were fast, but she was faster. She rolled under it, smearing blood when she had touched the ground. The thing tried to get under, but it got cut off at the shoulders. It's tongue swung around wildly as it tried to catch her ankle. She was laying there panting as the thing struggled in a futile attempt to free itself. She watched as it stopped breathing and died.  
  
'I think I may be on the wrong side.'  
  
She sighed and her head rocked about a bit as she tried to stay conscious.  
  
* * *  
  
'FERNANDEZ!!! LOOK AT THIS!!!'  
  
A glass cylinder with metal caps and two spirals in a double helix lay on the metal table of one of the labs. The two clear spirals were filled with a clear blue liquid.  
  
'Hey Fernandez, what d'ya think this is?'  
  
'I don't, but if it's in a glass container in a top secret lab, would you want to know what it was?'  
  
'I bet you it's an ornament or a toy or something, you know what those scientist types are like.'  
  
'Put it down Beck.'  
  
'HEY! V H!!!! CATCH!!!' Beck stupidly threw it long at Van Huhr, who was too busy trying to get a computer to start up. The cylinder smashed against the wall and the blue liquid splashed like a wave of sea spray against the snowy white wall.  
  
'Uh.guys.that's a T-Virus.we should run now.'  
  
They did. The blast doors were starting to seal, but the virus was already in the air con. 


	3. D Day

Honey looked around. She was out of breath and her anaemia wasn't helping her. Her forehead was bleeding everywhere and she was leaving a trail unintentionally.  
  
'Why? Why is it always me? As if I'm not in a bad enough state al-'  
  
She dropped to the floor clutching desperately at her head and the rough wall to her left. She winced and bent double smearing blood over the floor as she contorted into the foetal position. She couldn't scream she was in so much pain. Suddenly it stopped and everything went quiet. She slumped down with the weight of her body and lazily leaned against the wall and stretched her legs out in front of her. She closed her eyes and a strange light-headed feeling washed over and bright lime greens and royal blue tie- dye patterns zoomed across the inside of her closed eyelids. Her breath whistled noisily through her flared nostrils as a sudden flash of blood red tided from side to side in her view. A sharp pain shot from her until now latent right leg and right through her spine to her nervous epicentre. Her eyes slammed open and she was met by a panoramic view of someone she didn't know.  
  
'What the hell do you think you're doing down there?'  
  
She was in shock. The world sloshed all the way through her ringing head and a fuzzy, white noise; static blinded her sense of hearing. She blinked a few times trying to get her bearings as she breathed in and the world started spinning slowly and lagging every time she tried to focus.  
  
'Are you alright?'  
  
The world still span and her head rocked gently as her neck muscles randomly tried to tense. She screwed up her eyes as tight as she could to avoid the sickening lag but instead a burning silhouette of the stranger was imprinted on her retinas. She opened her eyes as she felt a large, warm hand on her pallid clammy skin. She looked into the eyes of the stranger and pursed her lips to utter a word of help.  
  
'Can you hear me?'  
  
She let out a murmured 'ow' and passed out, her head striking the floor with such force a shock wave went along her limp body.  
  
* * *  
  
'What was that thing?'  
  
'Now?'  
  
'What do you mean Beck?'  
  
Beck ran his fingers through his dark blonde hair and sighed.  
  
'It's different. It... It mutated.'  
  
There was utter silence. The half mutilated body of the teenager lay on the floor limp and near lifeless. She was still wearing her backpack and, although blood smeared, the contents were undamaged. A strange piece of bent metal, it must have been an earpiece or something and a small microchip wrapped in a piece of written on paper. Until the second team cam in, they were going to leave it all well alone, the 'tech spec' Xiang Wong was in that team, and he'd know what to do. His sister, Liu, was in the third team up in the mansion.  
  
* * *  
  
'Morning.'  
  
'Hey.'  
  
A hoarse Liu saluted half-heartedly at her brother as he left for the hive.  
  
'Don't get killed.'  
  
'By what? There's nothing that can kill me Liu.'  
  
'There better not be. See you round.'  
  
'Yeah.'  
  
The rest of the team tried to seem indifferent as they spoke in Mandarin Chinese, but really they wanted to know what was going on.  
  
'Okay team, move out.'  
  
Fernandez, a handsome Latino guy with more muscle than the rest of the team put together led them away and onto the train. Liu waved goodbye to her brother and somehow, she knew she'd see him again.  
  
* * *  
  
The picture on one of the worker's desks brought on Xiang's strange flashback. It was a little girl, about ten, oriental with long black hair. She resembled Liu a lot. They had the same innocent smile. He felt a warm fuzzy feeling wash over him, then spat it out and maintained his usual cold reserve.  
  
'Hey! Wong! Get yo' Chink ass over here man!'  
  
Horrowitz hated him. As far back as Wong could remember he hated him. It was completely irrational. If Wong started wearing a swastika the rest of the team would complain, but if Horrowitz called him a chink it affected no one else. It didn't help that Horrowitz was of 'mixed race'. A Jew pretending to be from the hood. Either sad or sick.  
  
'Go fuck yourself you dumb prick!'  
  
'I didn't get that. Talking a different language is very rude.'  
  
Xiang gave him the finger and walked off nonchalantly. A message came through on the com.  
  
'Get down here Wong; we need your tech specs now.'  
  
'Sure thing Blondie.'  
  
Wong and Beck were close. They went way back way, when, back in the day, they went to the same kindergarten, then school, then university and finally ended up in STARS. Wong didn't even acknowledge Horrowitz as he left for the deepest depths of hive where the other team was covering the bases.  
  
* * *  
  
'What do you mean a T-Virus?'  
  
Wong looked a little frantic. Seemed to the whole team that someone told him something they neglected to tell them.  
  
'WE NEED TO FIND THE ANTIDOTE!'  
  
'Huh?'  
  
'WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE UNLESS WE GET THE ANTIDOTE!!'  
  
'Oh. Where is it?'  
  
CCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRUUUUUNNNNNNNNCCCCCCCCCCCHHHH!  
  
The double doors at the end of the computer lab were slammed against and the sound of breaking bones made the whole team cringe. A spray of thick blood spattered the glass panels in the metal blast doors and Wong took a few cautious steps forwards.  
  
'You won't like this.'  
  
The team looked confused, except Rico. He covered his mouth in an attempt to gain attention to what he was about to say.  
  
'That...blood...it's...coagulated...they're dead.'  
  
It didn't sink in for Beck.  
  
'Who're dead?'  
  
A half skinned face pressed up against the window.  
  
'OH! FUCK! MAN! GOD!'  
  
'Sweet Mary mother of God. You're right I don't like it!'  
  
Wong turned to the rest of the team and his stark expression shocked them before he even said anything.  
  
'I didn't mean that you wouldn't like that. I meant...well...the antidote is in there.'  
  
'You're kidding me.'  
  
'No.'  
  
'Fuck.'  
  
'I know.' 


	4. First Wounds Made

Liu was sent to patrol the perimeter of the mansion. She was never fully briefed on what was going on in The Hive. As she and her partner neared some thick shrubbery she heard some music. She pulled back on her rifle and got ready for action.  
  
'We may have an intruder. Await further orders.'  
  
Her partner was, for a lack of a better word, very prim. She did everything by the book to the letter and footnote.  
  
'Do you really think that's necessary Natalya? I mean...really. It's just some stoner kids or whatever.'  
  
'Code dictates-'  
  
'Okay. Let's check it out. You go left, yeah.'  
  
The music got louder. It was something by Method Man. They stealthily made their way through the trees to a small clearing. There were two silhouettes and a stereo. The shadows were necking madly and holding each other in paces Natalya didn't want to think about.  
  
'FREEZE!'  
  
There was a scream and a teenage girl, about sixteen, made a dash for it. In a burst of rifle fire Natalya cut her down. The other person, another girl, grabbed an AK and shot Natalya in the head, squa' between the eyes. She then aimed at Liu, who was aiming at her.  
  
'Quits?'  
  
The girl had a deep, husky voice.  
  
'Huh?'  
  
'Really, I mean, if we don't one of us is gonna die and-'  
  
'You shot Natalya.'  
  
'She shot Sarah.'  
  
'Sarah?'  
  
'My girlfriend.'  
  
Liu looked rather shocked.  
  
'I'm gay.'  
  
The girl said this almost like a question.  
  
'Wanna tell me what STARS are doin here?'  
  
'What?'  
  
'You're STARS aren't ya? I mean, you got the kit n all. Figured ya must be.'  
  
The girl was olive skinned. Liu shone her torch at her to get a better view.  
  
'Mind where you're pointin that thing man.'  
  
'What do you know about STARS?'  
  
'You're here because something got loose, right? What was it this time?'  
  
Liu put her gun down.  
  
'You are dead. You know that don't you. If you speak a word of this to anyone you are dead.'  
  
'It went that way.'  
  
The girl pointed to her left.  
  
'Wait...how did you get that AK?'  
  
It suddenly dawned on Liu that she was standing three yards away from a girl with a serious piece of weaponry.  
  
'Mutilated body...laying on ground...you know that score.'  
  
'Where?'  
  
'Back that way. If you must know my sister was an office worker here. She used to get into files and stuff that were encrypted using her codes. I learnt from the best you know.'  
  
Liu aimed back at the girl. The girl brought herself up to her full five- five and pointed at the safety on the AK she was holding.  
  
'I think you should consider taking me with you. I'm a good shot, and I know more than you do about what you've been sent here to kill.'  
  
Liu thought for a second.  
  
'I can't do that.'  
  
Liu shot at the girl but Davidson wrecked her aim. He tackled her and pinned her to the ground.  
  
'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?'  
  
'She knows to much!'  
  
'I know enough to tell you if that thing gets into Racoon City we're all doomed.'  
  
* * *  
  
To: Sensei Hiramura Li  
  
From: Kathleen Johnson  
  
Cc: n/a  
  
Re: Leaks  
  
I've noticed that some files using my encryption codes have gone AWOL. I don't want to blame anyone, but I have noticed some unauthorised access of the main network form an external user. Do you think the Silent User is anything to do with this? I'm not sure whom to tell. I think I'll get fired if anything gets out to the powers that be. My sister says 'Hi' by the way. 


	5. Poetry in motion

'So what do we do?'  
  
Xiang raised his eyebrow at this. It was blindingly obvious that running would be the best bet in such a situation. He turned to the other door and went to open it. Rico slammed it closed when a disembodied hand was thrown against the window. Xiang jumped back and was about to shoot when something came through on the com.  
  
'Xiang! Help! Something's got loose and I think its heading into town. We've got to stop it!'  
  
The message was in frantic Chinese.  
  
'The hell was that Xiang?'  
  
'Liu's in trouble, and so are we if we don't do anything soon.'  
  
He motioned towards the crack in the glass panel. He looked around and saw the air vent directly above him.  
  
'Let's go.'  
  
Xiang hit the grille with the butt of his rifle and pulled a chair over. He went up first, he had a map of the hive and city rolled up and tucked in his left boot. He figured it was always useful to be prepared. He knew that this vent went straight up. This was their escape route. The rest of team started to go up, but Rico hung back, training his gun on the zombie hordes baying for blood. The glass was getting weaker with every body part slammed against it. The spider-webbed panel started to buckle and bend now. Rico was waiting till he could go.  
  
'NOW! RICO! GET UP!'  
  
He jumped and grabbed onto the grille. He got his torso into the vent, but he felt his foot being pulled down. He felt himself being dragged back down.  
  
'XIANG! HELP ME!'  
  
Xiang took his arm and pulled as hard as he could in such a small space. Rico was clawing at the smooth metal of the air con pipe and trying not to be pulled down by whatever had a hold of his foot. He closed his eyes slowly, so that a mist of a sort of after-image lingered in his mind as he fell down. He hit the floor with his shoulder so he wouldn't do any serious damage to himself. He couldn't help but open his eyes, he was curious of the horror that had torn him from his team, the true nature of the company he had served so faithfully for all these years. His eyelids slipped back and his gaze met with that of a scientist, or at least what he assumed was a scientist. It was a man wearing a white coat. Rico jumped up, and saw the bloodthirsty army that was previously at the door had now dispersed.  
  
'You're STARS, right?'  
  
'Who are you?'  
  
'Sensei...professor Li Hiramura, I'm a scientist here. I think you need to come with me.'  
  
'YO! TEAM!'  
  
There was no reply. They had assumed Rico as dead, and moved on.  
  
'Traitors.'  
  
Rico got up and made another jump for the vent. Hiramura again pulled him back down.  
  
'If you want to save your friends, you need to follow me.'  
  
'Like hell.'  
  
Rico punched him square in the jaw and made a break for it up the air con system. Crawling fast was difficult, he nearly caught up to his team, but he was stopped by something; voice, from another offshoot of the main outlet. It was vaguely familiar. Without thinking he followed it through the labyrinth of metal and finally came to its source. 


End file.
